


what stirs in the egg (you are there)

by windbellows



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: (knocks at botws door) got any more of those eldritch locations, Ficlet, Gen, Headcanon, One Shot, Speculation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29915892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windbellows/pseuds/windbellows
Summary: In the sanctum rests the Calamity, and a little further above - a Korok hides.
Kudos: 9





	what stirs in the egg (you are there)

**Author's Note:**

> (looks around) catch the ballad of the wind fish reference

The castle is alive. Living, breathing; it was surely not always like this. But the veins of Malice that clog its paths and ways span all around the entire world, and they’ve been reaching towards the vague idea of here since the beginning. 

Old echoes haunt these corridors. A lullaby framed above the throbbing cocoon; the instinctual thought of an organ, drifting through the ruined place; a heartbeat, the pulse of one in slumber. Link hears the latter loudest, as he’s crouched under some broken buttress, scarfing down a quick meal. He feels it too, as it thrums so strong it goes through him. His meal is followed by an elixir. When he downs the sweet liquid, scrapes close up and most of his burns vanish. He almost expects the castle to grow legs and walk away, from how _right there_ the heartbeat is. 

No way is he the only person who can hear it. Stuff like that’s happened before, but Link has a hunch that this time isn’t the same. The pulse is subdued in the lower levels of the castle, where it easily mixes in with footsteps and the whirring of Guardians. Other than that, the castle is silent, so the heartbeat is also easy to brush off as your own. But Link has gone further up here than anyone ever should, and the closer to the heart you get, the more obvious the sound becomes. He’s _seen_ the cocoon with his own eyes, or at least the very top. Apprehension had risen in his throat like bile (and probably some bile in there too, but he wasn’t really paying attention to himself) and after tearing his gaze away, Link had fled. 

Even stepping onto the castle island for the very first time felt like stumbling into an open maw. The ghosts here are quiet, swallowed like everything else, just like he probably was some hundred years ago. An instinctive aversion - he never wanted to come back here. It smells like Malice and maybe flesh and Link hears that heartbeat, and wrinkles his nose. He gets up, stretches, pockets the empty elixir bottle, but not before taking a big sniff.

Link goes even higher, chasing a different echo (this one, maybe, only he can hear) across a shattered terrace and up the main spire. The sun set some time ago but the sky’s all sorts of bright colors, lit up with a stagnant flame. It’s uncomfortably humid. Taking a break on a flat part of the spire, Link wipes his hands on his trousers and squints upwards. The tip is close, and the pulse has started to fade back away. He continues, for what lies here, at the peak?

There’s something at the top of every mountain, at the end of every quest. But that’s not what Link’s seeking out. He knows what’s waiting, all around and between and below. Or rather, he has a good idea of who might be. There, surrounded by unnatural light - the moon should be somewhere, really, but it’s not here - is a pleasantly twinkling cloud of leaves, a familiar sight. He reaches out with one hand to brush against a leaf, and at the first instance of touch they all disappear with a _pop!_ The Korok dangles, and waves hello. Link waves back. 

“Nice view up here,” he says, shifting his weight so he can hold on more easily. 

“You think so?”

“No. Maybe on a better day.”

“Maybe,” agrees the Korok. “When there’s days and nights up here again, maybe. I didn’t come here for the view, so it’s up to you, I guess.”

“Maybe.”

“Maybe,” the Korok echoes. “Wanna know why I came here?”

“Sure,” Link says, glancing around. All the beams from the Beasts meet below them. 

“Nowhere else to go. My favorite hiding spot got _taken._ ”

“Sorry to hear that,” he says, picturing a pout under their mask. “Where is it? If you tell me, I’ll go find it and I could work something out with the Korok who’s there-”

The Korok giggles, “ _Haha!_ You think you're so clever! You’re right! But I’m not telling.”

Link grins, idly swiveling about.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!


End file.
